Reimagining Superheroes as Hockey Teams #15 - New Jersey Devils (Daredevil)

[Karnage84]

This has been a really interesting and refreshing series. Really solid work overall too.

Keep it up!

[wildwing64]

On 8/11/2023 at 5:57 PM, Patchey13 said:

I think the shoulders for the Steelers should stay red on the away jersey. Also maybe a little cheeky idea would be a red name bar to give a really subtle nod to the cape flowing down the back.

 

I originally went with blue shoulders because - as I undertand it - the yoke serves as a way to put emphasis on a team's primary colour on the white jersey. In this case the Steelers are a blue team. But their main logo is mostly red, so I guess this works too.

 

Got a couple of different versions here, the first one with standard red lettering:

 

 

I wasn't feeling the red name bar, but then I remembered the Hurricanes road jersey from the late 2010's had sort of a cape effect going on, so I did another version based on that:

 

 

 

On 8/11/2023 at 6:29 PM, neo_prankster said:

I wonder if the Steelers could have a blue sweater/red pants throwback.

 

How's this? I tweaked the logo a bit and went with a brighter blue, partly inspired by the Habs' 2016 Winter Classic jersey.

 

 

--

 

Now that I've made these tweaks I'll be starting on the next team soon. With any luck, it'll be done in a flash.

[Silence of the Rams]

9 hours ago, wildwing64 said:

With any luck, it'll be done in a flash.

I see what you did there

 

Also I will say that it feels weird superman using a habs design but tbh it kinda works

[neo_prankster]

On 8/20/2023 at 5:20 AM, wildwing64 said:

 

I originally went with blue shoulders because - as I undertand it - the yoke serves as a way to put emphasis on a team's primary colour on the white jersey. In this case the Steelers are a blue team. But their main logo is mostly red, so I guess this works too.

 

Got a couple of different versions here, the first one with standard red lettering:

 

 

I wasn't feeling the red name bar, but then I remembered the Hurricanes road jersey from the late 2010's had sort of a cape effect going on, so I did another version based on that:

 

 

 

 

How's this? I tweaked the logo a bit and went with a brighter blue, partly inspired by the Habs' 2016 Winter Classic jersey.

 

 

--

 

Now that I've made these tweaks I'll be starting on the next team soon. With any luck, it'll be done in a flash.

 

I like the Steelers throwback but I think it could use more gold trim.

 

Also, I would like to see a Winter Classic sweater that could pay homage to the Fleischer cartoons, with the black shield, red S and yellow border.

[coco1997]

11 hours ago, neo_prankster said:

Also, I would like to see a Winter Classic sweater that could pay homage to the Fleischer cartoons, with the black shield, red S and yellow border.

I second this! I feel the "S" doesn't really pop as well on the throwback, since the jersey and the background of the shield are both blue. Going with the Fleischer-style shield could solve this. 

[wildwing64]

Next team is done - I'd meant to get this up earlier today but I'm having trouble with my Imgur account, so I'm settling for elsewhere for now.

 

7. Missouri Racers (Flash) (AH-AH!)

 

Name: Apparently the result of a fan poll, the name was inspired by Central City’s ubiquitous nickname “The City That’s Always On The Run”. The team also draws fans from nearby Keystone City, Kansas, but opted to use Missouri as the geographical identifier as a nod to the Missouri River that separates these twin cities. True to their name, the Racers roster is built around speed and finesse.

 

Logo: A winged ‘R’ for Racers. A subtle lightning bolt can be seen between the wings.

 

Alternate Logo: A circle containing a lightning bolt. This striking design was introduced on their third jersey, and now adorns the shoulders of their regular uniforms.

 

Colours: Red, gold and white, the official colours of both Central and Keystone Cities.

 

Jerseys: A pair of traditional sweaters featuring red, white and gold stripes. Nothing too flashy, however there is a lightning bolt on the pants which was brought over from their alternate uniform.

Third Jersey: The team’s secondary lightning bolt emblem originated from and takes centre stage on this bold, brazen and bizarre reinvention of their classic look, which is subject to much controversy; on one hand, it was popular enough to influence the aforementioned tweaks to their regular uniforms. On the other hand, some fans have loudly expressed their distaste for this aspect of the brand, with comparisons often made to a Guardian Comics superhero: the Lightning.

 

 

 

 

 

Like the Steelers and Knights before, the obvious logo choice for a team based on the Flash would be that iconic lightning bolt in a circle, right? Eh, maybe for a team formed in the 90’s. But for an old timey franchise, something like that seems more plausible as an alternate mark introduced in that decade, when lightning bolts and wacky third jersey designs were all the rage. For the primary logo I instead took inspiration from the helmet wings of the original Flash, Jay Garrick, and made an R for ‘Racers’ from that. The bolt is still a secondary mark, but I made a bolt shape in the wings as a way to retain that imagery in the main logo.

 

As for the jerseys: have you ever wondered what the St Louis Blues would look like if they were a red team instead? No? Well, that was the basic idea here. Or maybe it’s more of a hockey version of the Kansas City Chiefs, given Central City’s approximate location in the DC Universe (and depending on which version of the DCverse). The third is pretty much the Flash costume in hockey form; even with the lightning bolt stripes around his arms and waist, Barry Allen's suit already has a similar layout to a typical hockey sweater. But like the lightning bolt logo itself I felt it better suited to an alternate uniform, or maybe the team experimenting with a rebrand.

[Silence of the Rams]

8 hours ago, wildwing64 said:

Name: Apparently the result of a fan poll, the name was inspired by Central City’s ubiquitous nickname “The City That’s Always On The Run”. The team also draws fans from nearby Keystone City, Kansas, but opted to use Missouri as the geographical identifier as a nod to the Missouri River that separates these twin cities. True to their name, the Racers roster is built around speed and finesse.

Id say inadvertently The Wallace brothers and Ken Schrader also had an influence as well

[coco1997]

The Racers set is awesome. Red and gold is always a winning look, and I'm digging the drop shadowed lightning bolt! 

[wildwing64]

Hey everyone. It's been a while but I'm finally back into the swing of things and the next team is done.

 

8. New York Spiders (Spider-man)

 

Name: Per team sources, the official story is that the owner was bitten by a spider when coming up with a name for New York's second NHSL franchise. But many are not convinced, believing it came from a notorious crime-fighting vigilante who was active in New York during the 1930s; the Spider - as he was known - was said to be ruthless, leaving a mark resembling an arachnid on his victims’ foreheads. The man behind the mask still has yet to be identified (I guess no one could get pictures of him?) but given the city’s history with this individual the name was initially met with controversy. Despite this, the Spiders were an instant hit particularly with the younger demographic, and their popularity would soon eclipse that of the Americans who they once shared their building with.

 

Logo: The silhouette of a spider, with its eight legs designed to resemble hockey sticks. Notably the logo drew ire from the Gotham Knights, but their protest was met to no avail as nobody was going to mistake a spider for a bat. Despite the controversy surrounding its origin the Spiders brand has endured as one of the most beloved in the league.

 

Colours: Primarily red and navy with white accents. It seems that management couldn’t agree on either black or blue and settled on a dark blue instead.

 

Jerseys: The home red sweater features navy sleeves; this paired with the navy pants and red helmet gives the Spiders a unique look despite using similar colours to other clubs. The road uniform swaps the red and blue on the sleeves, and the crest is also recoloured to red.

Third Jersey: Breaking from tradition but building on their ever-popular brand, the Spiders jumped onto the stealthy trend with their alternate uniform, which features a black base with bold red stripes forming a V shape.

 

 

 

 

 

How could one start a superhero themed project like this and not include Spider-man? Funnily enough, I almost didn’t! At first I wasn’t convinced that the Spiders would work as a pro hockey team name especially for New York City - that is, until I did some research on Spider-man’s origins and how the character was conceived; turns out he was inspired by and named after a pulp fiction hero from the 30’s and 40’s. From what I could gather when compared to Spidey, the Spider wasn’t exactly your friendly neighbourhood superhero. Basically it seemed plausible that a team might choose to name itself after a controversial historical figure like this, only to attempt to cover it up with a false alternate story (the London Rippers, for example) and so like Stan Lee & Co. did for Spider-man, I used that character as the basis for this team’s name origin.

 

Spider-man is usually depicted as red paired with a brighter blue like other heroes such as Superman and Captain America (and it turns out there were technical reasons behind these colours; back then comics had a limited palette for printing) but some say that he was meant to be red and black, with blue being used to highlight his muscles and give him more visual depth. Evidently the red and blue colour scheme is what stuck and has become his signature look, but for this concept I opted for navy blue, partly as a compromise between the two colours but also to set them apart from their blue and red neighbours in Brooklyn.

 

Much like Batman, Spider-man’s logo has seen many variations through the years, and again I did my own take but with the spider’s legs being hockey sticks. Admittedly the uniforms aren’t the most revolutionary designs ever but the main gimmick of the home jersey is the dark blue sleeves contrasting the red body, much like Spidey’s suit. For the road jersey I took cues from a version of the 2099 suit which puts more emphasis on white and red on the upper body. The third is based on one of Miles Morale’s suits with a V design on it; the simple black and red scheme fits with more recent trends of ‘stealthy’ looks in the NHL like the Oilers, Sharks and Leafs third jerseys and it feels like something a team like this might do.

[coco1997]

Great to see this thread back in action!
 

I love the relative simplicity of the Spiders uniforms, which allows the giant arachnid logo to take center stage on the front of the jersey. Having said that, I do think it’s somewhat of a missed opportunity that you didn’t use some sort of web pattern somewhere.

 

I also feel the spider would pop a bit better, particularly on the home jersey, if you either darkened the blue or brightened up the red just a touch.

[wildwing64]

After three red teams in a row it's now time for our first green team to make for a visual change of pace... mostly.

 

9. Coast City Lanterns (Green Lantern)

 

Name: Northern California's first NHSL franchise was named in tribute to a former minor league team, which in turn was named after the Coast City Lantern; a green lighthouse that overlooks the city and is a popular local landmark.

 

Logo: A simple graphic representation of a lantern formed by two mirrored C’s, with two trapezoids above and below. Curiously it resembles a railroad lamp rather than the lighthouse the club shares its name with, though it’s said that the lighthouse keeper uses a lantern of this type, and it often gives off a distinct green glow from afar. The logo is a modified version of the old Lanterns crest, which was contained within a yellow circle and featured the team’s name and a pair of crossed hockey sticks.

 

Colours: Green, black and white.

 

Jerseys: The home jersey is green with black and white sleeves, and a single white stripe on the hem. Paired with a road white uniform with green and black sleeves, it’s a very understated look - perhaps appropriately so for the league’s first green team.

 

Third Jersey: A direct throwback to their minor league predecessors, who wore a primarily red sweater with green and gold accents.

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly, Green Lantern is a series I’m not that familiar with. I always thought the logo was a bit abstract and too simple, but working on this team led me to learn how it came about and what exactly it’s meant to resemble, and as such I’ve come to appreciate it more; it’s abstract, but it works! Even so it’s just a couple of tweaks away from being suitable for hockey, so I took it in two directions; one more like a traditional crest, and the other a retro inspired old timey look. The only significant change I’ve made is splitting the ring into two mirrored C’s for Coast City.

 

For the most part I’ve deliberately avoided super literal hockey versions of the heroes’ suits, but the design of Hal Jordan’s suit happened to fit the mould in a similar way to the Philadelphia Flyers; a somewhat simple look putting emphasis on the primary colour. The third is a nod to the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott; ironically I chose this team to do next to make a change after three red teams in row, and yet here we are with another one. Still, interesting that his suit was mostly red (maybe it was those limited printing palettes again?)

[coco1997]

Love the Lanterns! Very cool of you to pay tribute to Alan Scott with the alternate. The crossed sticks within the logo are top notch. 

[jbird669]

What a great series! I love the names on the jerseys, too, a nice touch.

[LaGrandeOrange]

I'm not a big superhero guy but I am a big hockey fan- this is a clever series, good presentation!

[Oscarr]

This really brought a smile.  Excellent job.

[johne9109]

13 hours ago, wildwing64 said:

After three red teams in a row it's now time for our first green team to make for a visual change of pace... mostly.

 

9. Coast City Lanterns (Green Lantern)

 

Name: Northern California's first NHSL franchise was named in tribute to a former minor league team, which in turn was named after the Coast City Lantern; a green lighthouse that overlooks the city and is a popular local landmark.

 

Logo: A simple graphic representation of a lantern formed by two mirrored C’s, with two trapezoids above and below. Curiously it resembles a railroad lamp rather than the lighthouse the club shares its name with, though it’s said that the lighthouse keeper uses a lantern of this type, and it often gives off a distinct green glow from afar. The logo is a modified version of the old Lanterns crest, which was contained within a yellow circle and featured the team’s name and a pair of crossed hockey sticks.

 

Colours: Green, black and white.

 

Jerseys: The home jersey is green with black and white sleeves, and a single white stripe on the hem. Paired with a road white uniform with green and black sleeves, it’s a very understated look - perhaps appropriately so for the league’s first green team.

 

Third Jersey: A direct throwback to their minor league predecessors, who wore a primarily red sweater with green and gold accents.

 

 

 

 

 

Admittedly, Green Lantern is a series I’m not that familiar with. I always thought the logo was a bit abstract and too simple, but working on this team led me to learn how it came about and what exactly it’s meant to resemble, and as such I’ve come to appreciate it more; it’s abstract, but it works! Even so it’s just a couple of tweaks away from being suitable for hockey, so I took it in two directions; one more like a traditional crest, and the other a retro inspired old timey look. The only significant change I’ve made is splitting the ring into two mirrored C’s for Coast City.

 

For the most part I’ve deliberately avoided super literal hockey versions of the heroes’ suits, but the design of Hal Jordan’s suit happened to fit the mould in a similar way to the Philadelphia Flyers; a somewhat simple look putting emphasis on the primary colour. The third is a nod to the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott; ironically I chose this team to do next to make a change after three red teams in row, and yet here we are with another one. Still, interesting that his suit was mostly red (maybe it was those limited printing palettes again?)

Great job! That 3rd jersey is amazing and a cool nnod to the character history

[wildwing64]

Now to round off the first ten with our first Canadian team, which is also technically the first X-Men representative for this project. That's a lot of firsts. (And it won't be our only X-Men rep either!)

 

10. Montreal North Stars (Alpha Flight)

 

Name: Montreal’s NHSL expansion franchise was awarded on a night when both Polaris - the North Star itself - and an aurora borealis were visible above the city. The owners saw this as a sign of good fortune, and named their team the North Stars.

 

Logo: An M for Montreal in front of a four pointed star and a circle. The logo’s design resembles a compass pointing north.

 

Colours: Black, white and light blue.

 

Jerseys: A pair of traditional hockey sweaters, primarily black and white with blue accents and blue numbers. The home black jersey features a white shoulder yoke, and vice versa on the road white sweater.

 

Third Jersey: Amidst a wave of unusual alternate jersey designs came this one from the North Stars, with a pattern inspired by the same star that gave them their name. Blue is gone from the colour scheme and the logo has been adjusted, removing the circle and swapping the M for an N.

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to the US-based superheroes my options are much more limited with Canada, both in terms of numbers and how many of them could potentially work as team identities. So far I’ve narrowed it down to a few that don’t use the obvious red white and maple leaf imagery - otherwise I’d just end up with a bunch of Team Canadas (there is one exception, but I’ll get to it when I get to it). With that said: Northstar is a character I had no idea existed until I started planning this project, but his black and white colour scheme makes him somewhat unique compared to several other heroes and as we all know, the North Stars is a good name for a hockey team.

 

Visually, Northstar didn’t give me much to work with aside from the star motif of his suit. His colours are black and white, which despite my previous statement is a bit boring. Also he doesn’t have a logo of his own, but then he’s mostly affiliated with Alpha Flight and/or the X-Men. However he did get his own miniseries in 1994; the covers featured an 8 pointed star in the comic’s logo, so I mainly based my design around that. I also included a light blue accent as issue 1 used it as a keyline on the cover logo, but it also pairs well with black and white and seemed like a good fit for the identity.

 

For the logo I took that eight pointed star and - after a few attempts to fit an M for Montreal inside of it - opted to keep it simple, using a four pointed star and then overlaying the M in front of it, using that to (kind of) form the other four points. The angular shape of the M was meant to be evocative of the pattern on Northstar’s suit, but I also think a simple M is a good fit for a traditional hockey market like Montreal - despite them being an expansion team in this alternate universe. At the last minute I changed the M on the front of the third jersey to an N (you can still see the M version on the pants and helmet) as I’m sure someone would want to see what that’d look like. Curious to see if there’s any preference one way or the other.

 

The home and road uniforms are fairly traditional, again befitting of Montreal. The white shoulder yoke was based on Northstar’s suit, but for the stripes I mostly took inspiration from the Montreal Maroons and the last Minnesota North Stars jersey from before they moved for this look, though I admit it may come off as looking a bit generic like those lacer hoodies which all use the same striping design. On the other hand the third jersey is a more direct adaptation of Northstar’s suit, with a little influence from the Dallas Stars. I’d like to think this one stands out as being kind of wacky in spite of only using black and white.

 

 

[johne9109]

3 hours ago, wildwing64 said:

otherwise I’d just end up with a bunch of Team Canadas (there is one exception, but I’ll get to it when I get to it). 

I wonder if that measn you're doing another Canadian team using Guardian (Alpha Flight's leader) He's a walking maple leaf. It probably is referecing Wolverine or Deadpool though

[coco1997]

Alpha Flight looks great! Black and light blue feels very "Canada."

I know you already have a couple of NYC-based teams, but I'd love to see you do something with the Ghostbusters and/or Ninja Turtles. 

[wildwing64]

On 11/11/2023 at 1:45 PM, johne9109 said:

I wonder if that measn you're doing another Canadian team using Guardian (Alpha Flight's leader) He's a walking maple leaf. It probably is referecing Wolverine or Deadpool though

 

All three of those are planned for this project!

 

21 minutes ago, coco1997 said:

I know you already have a couple of NYC-based teams, but I'd love to see you do something with the Ghostbusters and/or Ninja Turtles.

 

A Ninja Turtles team is planned! Hadn't considered the Ghostbusters but that could be interesting.